How to plan a wedding for under $10k
I need to preface this post by saying that Cristian and I did not stay within our $10k wedding budget but if we were to do it all over again, there are costs we could have cut to get there. Having been recently married, all the budget tips are still fresh on my mind. Here are my top tips for all the brides to be.
My top tips for having a $10k wedding
1.Buy designer dresses at stillwhite.com.au
This tip is probably most relevant to my Australian readers. I came across stillwhite.com.au when I was shopping for cheap wedding dresses. I loved Grace Loves Lace and Lover dresses but couldn’t justify the hefty price tag ($2k and up). There were dresses I loved that were marked off by 50-70%! The only thing holding me back was that it had been worn by someone else. Looking back I probably would have been fine buying second hand on something someone’s worn just once.
p.s. If you’re looking for a wedding dress, I’m selling Alexandra gown from Grace Loves Lace.
2. No-one cares about invites
One of the most dangerous things you can do when you’re planning a wedding is get caught up with having the best of everything. The reality is, as hard as you try to make those minor details stand out, the only thing people will remember about your wedding is how much fun they had. I can’t believe that I was almost crazy enough to pay $25 per invitation just to have some gold foil embossed onto the invite.
3. Get out of the city
When I looked at wedding venues in the city, most of them were charging $10-$15k just for the venue and food. Even though we had a small guest list of 50, it would mean stretching our budget much further than we planned. All the venues out of town were already booked out and we were determined to get married in early 2017. We found a few beautiful homesteads but ended up choosing a 18 acre property with 20 bedrooms. Though the venue alone cost us $5k, it meant that all of our family were accommodated for. It also saved us the cost of hire cars which can cost anywhere from $500+.
4. Ask for help
This was one thing I did that helped us save thousands on our wedding. We were lucky enough to have a friend who baked our delicious and beautiful wedding cake, a talented wedding planner/stylist who helped us stage a venue from scratch (not to mention she also organised the logistics too), a budding graphic designer who whipped up on invites in no time, a hairstylist friend who not only did my hair but also my maid of honour and our mums. We are so grateful to have such a group of talented friends who offered to help us.
Note: We would not have been able to pull off a wedding at our venue without the help of Nikki from Think PR & Events. When you have a wedding on a property, everything from glassware to furniture to cutlery needs to be considered. It’s much better to have someone who knows what you need to organise (and then organise it for you). What I also love about working with Nikki is that she’ll always tell you what to spend vs what to splurge on. She’s the best! It rained the entire day of our wedding. Some things didn’t go to plan i.e. audio issues, furniture, bar staff calling in sick but Nikki was there to manage it all and shield us from the stress. I can’t imagine how stressful the planning would have been without Nikki. Cristian was a little bit skeptical at first about spending money on wedding planning services but it was one of the best decisions we made. I would highly recommend hiring a wedding planner if your wedding is offsite and on a property. If you’re in Sydney, you might want to get in touch with Nikki in advance, she books out quickly.
5. Wedding favours
A little token of appreciation goes a long way. I wish I had discovered Beaucoup when were planning our wedding. For some reason we couldn’t find any wedding favour ideas that weren’t tacky or reasonable in price.
Tip on wedding favours: If you’re going to spend money on wedding favours, you’ll want to consider 3 factors. Adam Reiner of Beau-coup says it’s best to ensure the gifts are:
- useful
- on theme
- sparks an emotion
Here’s a list of the most popular wedding favours. Personally I think you can’t go wrong with something that is edible.
If you’ve set your budget to $10k and intend to keep it that way, you might want to check out: Dream Weddings on a $10k budget.
Planning a wedding? Are you staying on budget? Would love to know!
***Some of the links in this post are affiliate links but I would never recommend anything I wouldn’t use myself.
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